Hey Everybody…Well, another week has come and gone, so Happy Friday Follies to the most special people anywhere. I hope you’re all doing great and enjoying the fabulous weather if it’s as beautiful where you are as it is here. I also wish you as I always do when I pray for you that your needs are being met and that you’re healthy and happy and experiencing the very best in life.
I’ve been working hard to finish the novel and it really is almost done. Everything seems to always take longer than you think. I’ll tell you more about it when I figure out what to do next. Thanks again to those of you still ordering the calendar for your favorite friends. I’m so pleased that you’re finding it something you can “chew” on. And the comment I get most often is it’s inspirational, so that’s very cool.
I’m getting a lot of questions about different songs, so this week I’ll answer some of the questions you’ve asked about “That Was Yesterday”: “You have said in some interviews that it was originally not a spoken word piece. What made you decide to change it? Did you think it would be a #1 for you?” Another question was about how do you come up with the rhythm and a melody if it’s spoken? Good questions!
Well, I did write the song first to be sung with totally different lyrics. When I sang it in the studio, I thought it required a “stringy” type interpretation and I wasn’t happy with it. So I asked Stan and the engineer to make me a copy of just the track without my vocal on it and let me work with it. So when I listened to it at home I decided to re-write it in prose rather than verse to see how it would turn out. I guess I’d messed with it long enough by then that it just evolved into what seemed like a letter the person in the song would never send. And so it became a recitation not to be sung, but spoken. I knew it was risky, but I didn’t care. I just wanted it to be the best I could do. By then I knew I liked it, and I didn’t mind that it was so different.
So, no, I didn’t think it would be a single, much less a #1 for me but was so happy when it was. Djs were really key to it even being a single, so I was happy when djs played it off the album and got a lot of requests for it and told Warner Brothers it should be a single. It was my 3rd most requested song on my live shows, next to “Happiest Girl” and “Funny Face.” People would say “Do that song about the letter.”
To answer the 2nd question about how did I come up with rhythm and a melody if it’s spoken. It was easier because I’d written it as a song to be sung first, so it had “normal” verses and rhythm. So then when I rewrote it in prose, I just worked within the original framework of the verses. When you listen to it though as a recitation, you’re not as aware when one verse ends and another begins because it’s spoken.
Thanks for all the questions! Until next time, keep your sunny side up and be good to everyone – and yourself.
Love,
Donna